THE NINE COMMANDMENTS: 9 Strict Rules Every ‘Road Runner’ Cartoon Had to Follow

Try as hard as he might, Wile E. Coyote could never quite catch the Road Runner. Now, the nine rules set for the series by the creator behind the Looney Tunes classic, which stacked the deck against the character, have caused much social media buzz.

Chuck Jones‘ rules that governed each and every encounter between Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote have gone viral on Twitter after director Amos Posner shared a page from the 1999 autobiography of Jones, Chuck Jones, Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist.

Still obsessed with Chuck Jones’ coyote/roadrunner rules. Awesome to so clearly, concisely define your characters. pic.twitter.com/MRd4zguD93

— Amos Posner (@AmosPosner) March 4, 2015

The nine strict rules made sure there was no dialog apart from “beep beep,” that every episode was set in the American south west, that Wile E. Coyote only shopped at Acme Corporation despite the appalling success rate of their products and, most tellingly, gravity was to be the coyote’s worst enemy whenever possible…(read more)

Hollywood Reporter